


Veils

by meyari



Series: Hospitality [6]
Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: Alternate Universe - Slavery, Harems, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-04-08
Updated: 2011-04-08
Packaged: 2017-10-17 18:50:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/180088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meyari/pseuds/meyari
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There were times that Clark missed his freedom, missed the ability to act on his own as he willed, but there were also times where he was desperately glad that he belonged to Bruce, who protected his own with all the ferocity of a man who had lost too much too soon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Veils

There were times that Clark was desperately grateful that Lex had talked him into becoming a slave. While he would always miss the freedom and purpose that went with being a farmer, Clark was glad that having Bruce at his side protected him utterly from the greed in Lionel's eyes. Adding that to the gauzy white veils and precious jewels that covered him from head to toe and Clark felt rather like he was armored, though his armor was much less impressive than Tim's bondage gear armor.

Still, he wished that he were free to act when Roy burst through the back door with Dick in his arms. Seeing sweet Dick so pale and still in Roy's arms, the graceful body covered with blood, was terrifying, especially given the terror on Roy's face. Either he was the best actor that Clark had ever seen or Dick was hurt far worse than they'd thought in the cave.

"Lord Bruce!" Roy shouted. "Get a healer! I think your slave is dying!"

Even though Clark knew it was coming, he still gasped and clutched Lord Bruce's arm. They were both covered with blood, far too much blood. Dick's naked body was entirely too pale and Roy's expression so frantic that Clark automatically listened into Dick's heartbeat. It fluttered and faltered for a moment, prompting Clark to push Bruce towards Roy and Dick with shaking hands.

"What happened?" Bruce snapped as Roy hurried over and transferred Dick into his arms. "How did he get outside?"

"I don't know," Roy said. He was visibly shaking now that he wasn't cradling Dick. "I saw a scuffle through the window, out in the garden. When I got out there I saw someone stab him and run, then he fell and there was so much blood..."

"You used one of our bandages," Oliver said, putting his hand on Roy's shoulder to steady him. "Good man."

"It's already soaking through, my Lord," Roy said with barely a nod to Oliver. "The wound is… it's bad."

Bruce immediately turned towards the hallway leading to the harem, Oliver, Lex and Roy all right behind him. Roy automatically grabbed Clark's leash, apparently barely aware of Clark, though the move was utterly welcome as far as Clark was concerned. The last thing he wanted was to be left behind at the party without Bruce's presence. There was no way that Lionel could resist doing something inappropriate if that happened.

Oliver took Jason's arm and Lex went to take Tim's leash but Tim grunted something urgent, gesturing towards his gag with his bound hands. He made it look as though he could barely move his arms, which furthered the illusion that his gear was a training tool rather than protection. Lex removed the gag at Bruce's nod of approval.

"I'm sorry," Tim apologized the instant the gag was out of his mouth. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I saw Dick slip away and I didn't say anything. I should have, I know, but I didn't. I didn't think anything would happen, that he'd go outside or let anyone see him. I'm so sorry!"

"Why would he do that?" Roy asked, obviously horrified that Dick would slip away that way.

Clark had to fight the urge to beam at Tim. His veil covered his face entirely but his eyes were quite visible, after all. Tim was a much better actor than he thought because he hesitated, biting his lip, until Bruce growled at him. That made Tim flinch and swallow hard before turning sad eyes on Roy.

"He's kind of got a crush on you," Tim said just quietly enough that the closest Lords and Ladies barely heard him. "He wanted to see if he could get a glimpse of you before the party."

The sheer impropriety of that prompted the close nobility to gasp and start whispering the news to the ones next to them, and then they whispered it onwards in a wave of rapidly growing shock and salacious interest. Most of the comments that Clark overheard were of the opinion that Dick should be allowed to die, as he obviously wasn't a good slave. Bruce growled and swept out with all of them in tow behind him.

Stephanie was waiting at the door to the harem, her bag of medical supplies in hand. She gasped and went pale when she saw Dick's limp form and then stared when Bruce nodded that she could come into the harem with them. After that initial moment of shock, she was all business, using a spell to remove the blood covering Dick's body and then stabilized his condition with another spell.

"How the hell?" Lex muttered, watching Stephanie treat Dick with as much attention as Bruce, Oliver, Roy or Clark, Jason and Tim.

"Mmm, quite nice," Lionel hummed from the hallway. "Not quite what I was expecting for your harem."

"Get out," Bruce snapped at Lionel. "You are not welcome in my harem."

"That's hardly a politic thing to say to your king," Lionel said, mock-casually taking another step into the room and staring at Clark.

"Dad," Lex said in the coldest tone that Clark had heard since the day he'd announced that he was giving his beloved personal slave to Lord Wayne, "if he challenges you over this intrusion, I'll let him."

Clark couldn't restrain his gasp of shock, not that he was the only one to gasp. Several others behind Lionel immediately scrambled to get out of the harem and Tim all but dove into Jason's arms. Roy put his hand on his bow as if to draw it and Oliver smirked into his beard, obviously anticipating Bruce doing exactly that.

Lionel's expression went from sheer shock that Lex would allow Bruce to challenge for the right to the throne that would be his one day, to fury at being denied what he wanted, to fear as Bruce drew himself up and started towards him. Affecting indifference, Lionel snorted and turned on his heel, striding out of the harem with just a little too much speed for it to be a believable act.

"Well, you did allow a woman in here," Stephanie commented when Bruce returned from locking the doors to the harem. "That's the next best thing to the world coming to an end."

"Will he survive?" Bruce asked.

"Yeah, he'll live," Stephanie sighed. "I've got regrowth spells working on the damage but it's pretty severe. The knife went deep, damaging several internal organs as well as causing a lot of internal bleeding. Lord Oliver, I want the spell for this bandage. It's entirely too useful. Very good work on it."

"I'll be glad to ensure that you get the spell," Oliver laughed, relief coloring the laughter with just a shred of hysteria. "My healer will be delighted that you praised it."

She grinned at him and nodded before turning her focus to Roy. "Any of that your blood?"

"Huh?" Roy said, startled out of his worried focus on Dick. "Oh, no. None of it's mine. I wasn't hurt at all."

"Good," Stephanie said. "Get cleaned up then. The lot of you, shoo. You're hovering and that doesn't help the healing. Lord Bruce, put on different clothes. Those are trashed."

They all moved away from Dick and Stephanie, though Roy kept staring at them as if he wanted to be there holding Dick and protecting him. Clark smiled behind his veil, relieved that Roy seemed to actually care about Dick as more than a slave he'd sampled one night. If the tentative talks that Bruce and Oliver continued, that was something that would make all of them feel better.

"Secure?" Lex murmured, looking at Clark.

Clark frowned, listened hard and then nodded. "I can't hear any spells other than Stephanie's and the ones that are always here. I don't think anyone is listening in."

"What the hell happened?" Oliver burst out. "How'd he get hurt that badly?"

"The Joker," Roy said. "I was on my way back from the errand you sent me on and found him in an alley in the bad part of town. Got him back here as quick as I could."

"That's enough," Bruce snapped when Oliver and Lex both looked like Roy's explanation was completely incomprehensible. "Don't ask, gentlemen, unless you want to go into great detail about why Roy was running errands for you Oliver and what you're doing about Lionel's secret troops, Lex."

Lex's head snapped around and he stared at Bruce, along with Oliver who looked decidedly uncomfortable with the concept of sharing those details. Clark sighed and settled onto one of the floor cushions. Behind him, Tim sighed and then shook his head in dismay.

"You really do need to have that discussion," Tim said in a voice that was eminently suitable for a noble son and utterly improper for a slave who was in disgrace. "There's simply too much going on and no one has the full picture."

"What do you think is going on?" Clark asked because it looked like Bruce, Lex and Oliver wanted to spank his ass until it glowed in the dark instead of listening to him.

Tim smiled at him, that shy needy smile that always made Clark want to cuddle him. "I don't think that I have anywhere near the full picture, but it appears to me that King Lionel is attempting to break the nobility entirely. From the things I heard before my parent's death, which by the way was not accidental as was claimed at Court, and the things I've seen and heard since then, King Lionel is systematically destroying the old orders from the clergy in down to the social mores that people used to follow."

Clark blinked at him, as befuddled by that as everyone else. Bruce made a little interrogative noise while Roy and Oliver stared with their jaws dropped open. The one that was revealing was Lex. He went incredibly pale and collapsed into one of the chairs. From the way he stared at Tim, he'd seen similar patterns and hadn't wanted to believe them.

"He outlawed charity to the poor," Jason murmured while hugging Tim tightly.

"Destroyed the Royal Academy," Oliver agreed with a thoughtful, horrified nod.

"He's put in all sorts of bad Lords and continually attacks the good ones," Roy added while swallowing hard.

"Don't forget the way he's raised taxes on the poor and levied much higher penalties if you can't pay," Stephanie commented from her spot next to Dick. "And the Roma are hunted, the healers have all sorts of restrictions on what they're allowed to do, the clergy have been forbidden to say certain prayers and the police have been hamstrung by having their authority taken away."

"Exactly," Tim agreed. "This isn't mismanagement. It isn't casual contempt. There's a pattern to his behavior. He's up to something but I've never been able to figure out what it is."

"Fuck."

Lex's single curse word drew Clark's attention. There was far too much despair in his voice and fear in his eyes as he stared out towards the darkness of the rose garden. Clark stood and went to kneel at Lex's feet. He could feel Bruce's eyes on his back but didn't turn to reassure him. Even though he loved Bruce with all his heart now, Lex had been Clark's first love, the one who taught him the ways of the heart and made him truly feel beloved.

"What?" Clark asked. He put a hand on Lex's knee, daringly but Clark had always been more daring where Lex was concerned.

"I've seen the same things," Lex said far too quietly, though still loud enough for everyone to hear him. "Lionel, he says things sometimes when he's drunk, things that make me worry. There's something very wrong with him but I don't know what it is."

"When did it start?" Bruce asked in his darkest tone, the one that he usually reserved for the Batman armor.

Lex turned to look at Stephanie and Dick, his worried frown making Clark laugh softly. The last person that Clark would have worried about was Stephanie. She was as dedicated to the Mission as Bruce was, though for different reasons. There was no way for Lex to know that Stephanie had become a healer after her father had betrayed her mother and Stephanie by joining Lionel's forces. He didn't know that she'd been the second Batgirl, presumed daughter of Batman, until the Joker nearly killed her. The thought of her betraying them made Clark grin behind his veil.

"Stephanie would never betray us," Clark said to Lex. "She's one of our strongest allies."

"Fucking Joker damned near killed her," Jason said. "That's why she's a healer, to fix the damage he did to her, least as much as possible."

"Ah, that's what happened to Batgirl," Lex murmured, proving once again that his mind moved more quickly than anyone else's. He sighed and looked at Clark, running a gentle finger over the portion of his veil that hid Clark's lips from view. "I first noticed it shortly after Clark's powers manifested. We were discussing marriage at the time and Lionel had been supportive, joking about how we were Beauty and the Beast, just like him and my mother. He'd always been… power hungry and amoral. I knew that, accepted it, but the next morning I woke up to a man I'd never seen before."

"He was different," Clark agreed. "Not totally different but definitely not the same. It was like shadow fell across his soul."

The difference had been striking at the time, though it wasn't one that Clark considered to be a matter of a total personality change. It was more that Lionel had lost what few morals he'd had and become the ultimate expression of power-hungry greed. Lionel's sense of humor had shifted from wry and witty to cutting. His interactions with those weaker than him had become abusive, sometimes rapacious. Clark had seen in person the things that Lionel would do to slaves or wards of the Court. He still had nightmares about it.

"Could he have seen your powers manifest?" Tim asked Clark.

"What powers?" Oliver asked, obviously puzzled.

Clark answered him by standing up and taking flight. He hovered in the center of the room long enough for Oliver to start cursing and Roy to run a shaking hand over his face. When Clark settled back down to the ground, Bruce was there, pulling him into his arms as if he couldn't help himself. Lex's little sigh was full of pain but also resignation. They both knew that what they had in the past was long over.

"How the hell did a bunch of slaves become the Dark Knights?" Roy asked. "Seriously, that's the one thing that I don't understand."

"How did you become the Red Arrow?" Bruce countered.

"You told him?" Oliver snapped at Roy.

"I found _Nightwing_ in the Narrows," Roy snarled back at Oliver. "I was supposed to help him as myself? And be seen doing it by rioters, everyone and God?"

That shut Oliver up. He waved a hand at Roy in a silent apology that Roy appeared to accept as being as valid as a spoken one. After a moment, Oliver sighed and looked at Bruce with wry humor in his eyes.

"I suppose we had the same impulse," Oliver said. "We both wanted to make things better but couldn't risk our standing at Court so we…"

"Got creative," Bruce agreed. "Yes. I don't think we're the only ones, Oliver. There have to be other nobles who have experienced the same things, have made the same choices."

"A League," Lex murmured, recapturing their attention. "There needs to be a League that can fight against Father, investigate what he's up to without repercussions to their standing or to their dependents. We need to figure out what happened to him and how to fix it or at least how to stop him."

Bruce and Oliver exchanged looks that started out thoughtful and then went wickedly anticipatory. In the circle of Bruce's arms, Clark chuckled. Heaven help Lionel now, Clark thought, he had no idea what was going to be coming his way. Before either Oliver or Bruce could say anything, Dick groaned and shifted on his pallet.

"Owww," Dick complained. "I want that bandage back."

"Dick!"

Roy ran over and dropped to his knees next to Dick. The expression on his face reminded Clark of times past with Lex and times present with Bruce. From the way Dick smiled up at Roy, he was very happy to see Roy looking at him that way. Stephanie chuckled and stood up with her satchel firmly in hand.

"I'll leave you gentlemen to your discussions," Stephanie said dryly. "Don't forget that there's a party going on outside with all of King Lionel's cronies gossiping about Dick's condition and his rebellion. And you two!"

Dick and Roy both started at the imperious finger leveled at them.

"No getting up, no sex of any variety and no eating or drinking until tomorrow after I check the spells on you," Stephanie ordered. "You can hold his hand, Roy, but if you try anything more than that I'll hex your privates so that you don't get it up for a year."

"Yes ma'am!" Roy said, sketching a quick salute at her that made Clark giggle into Bruce's neck.

"Awwwwwww," Dick complained.

"And if you try anything," Stephanie continued to Dick in the same, stern voice, "I'll hex you so that you not only can't get it up, you can't enjoy anything that's done to you for a year."

"Uh, yes ma'am," Dick replied with a gulp of horror.

"Good. Now get cleaned up, changed and back out to that party before people assume you've gone too soft to protect your slaves, Lord Bruce," Stephanie said. "I'll find out who decided that they were free to come in here and let you know later so that you can call them out."

She strode out of the harem, proud and purposeful. Clark smiled and then turned back to Bruce. No matter how worried they were about Dick and what Lionel was actually up to, they did need to get back to the party soon. The damage control was going to be horrendous but at least it looked like Bruce might have some allies in the fight beyond their immediate family.


End file.
